Cory Sandhagen not interested in being UFC 316's backup fighter: 'It's a really bad deal'

Yahoo

05-05-2025

Cory Sandhagen couldn't have performed much better than he did at UFC Des Moines this past Saturday.
As UFC returned to Iowa for the first time in 25 years, Sandhagen made sure to send fans home happy with his main-event bout against former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo. Sandhagen poured on his typically versatile offense from the opening horn, dominated every position on the ground, then reversed a 50-50 guard to injure Figueiredo's knee and earn the second-round stoppage with follow-up punches.
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Although Sandhagen entered the fight off a tough unanimous decision loss to Umar Nurmagomedov, his surprisingly dominant effort was exactly what he anticipated.
"I thought I was going to for sure win," Sandhagen said Monday on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I definitely believed in my skills a lot to beat Figueiredo. I also allowed myself to be a lot more confident than I ever have in the past. That was one of the first things that [coach] Trevor [Whittman] started planting seeds in my head. He wasn't like, 'Hey Cory, you need to start being more confident.' It was more of like, 'Hey man, when you say things, say things with confidence.' So Trevor kind of has been planting a lot of seeds.
"Trevor's really good about turning people into champions, like from the inside out. He's definitely super knowledgeable, but that part doesn't really go unnoticed to me. He's really good at that, so I kind of just let myself be a lot more confident in this one. So I did think I was going to beat him pretty handily, but also, at the same time, I've seen really crappy stuff happen to people in this sport, and fighters lose when they were better than the other person, so I always kind of had an edge of it. But I thought the fight was going to go pretty much exactly how it did."
If one thing caught Sandhagen off guard, it was the amount of grappling he and Figueiredo engaged in. Known mostly for his striking, Sandhagen has proven capable on the ground, but less savvy than on his feet. You may not have known that, though, had Saturday's fight been your first time watching "The Sandman."
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"I didn't really think that there would be that much grappling in it," Sandhagen said. "But there was because 'Figgy' was kind of shooting on me a lot. He was giving me reversals, so what am I going to do? Not take them? So yeah, I thought that I was going to dominate. I said that a lot, and I think I said that I was going to finish him too.
"The entire plan was to finish him and look better against him than [Petr] Yan did so that I could call my shot and have it not be Yan. That's what I did."
Sandhagen has put himself at the forefront of the bantamweight contenders queue, all of whom await the winner of the upcoming title rematch between champion Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O'Malley at UFC 316 on June 7.
In his post-fight interview at UFC Des Moines, Sandhagen made it clear that a title fight is his next target. So what about serving as the backup fighter for Dvalishvili vs. O'Malley, as Ian Machado Garry is doing for the welterweight title bout at UFC 315 this coming Saturday?
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Sandhagen would consider it, of course, but admittedly it's not his best-case scenario. Aside from himself, Yan is the only person Sandhagen sees on a similar path to a bantamweight title shot.
"After talking to some people about it, I think I just try to be a little bit of a try-hard," Sandhagen said of his willingness to be a backup fighter. "That's what got me this far in the sport. Doing stuff that sucks that other people aren't willing to do. But I also think that I'm in a position now that I've earned [a title fight], and the backup fighter is really not a good deal for the backup fighter. You've got to prepare for two guys on a whim, that you might get it, and you might take it the day of.
"It's a really bad deal that I feel like I have earned the right to not have to do. At the same time, I will be staying pretty sharp these next couple weeks in case something does happen or whatever.
"I'll definitely be at the show," Sandhagen added, "but I think that I've certainly earned my shot at the title. Especially being that Umar just fought for the belt. The only other guy is Yan, and I hate to be a politician and have to shoot down someone else to put me up a little bit, but Yan has lost to both of them (Dvalishvili and O'Malley), and he went five rounds with 'Figgy' in a really competitive fight. I went a round and a half with 'Figgy' in a really uncompetitive, one-sided fight that I won and that I finished. So I think that I'm the next guy, no doubt."
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Sandhagen and Yan previously fought in October 2021, putting on one of the better bouts of that year. Ultimately, Yan walked away victorious to claim interim gold that night, and the two have had mixed results in their journeys since.
A rematch against Yan is a viable option that Sandhagen is more than willing to accept — he just wants to see how things unfold in the upcoming title tilt first. Should Dvalishvili drop the title to O'Malley, he doesn't expect the UFC to make a trilogy, increasing his likelihood of finally fighting O'Malley.
"I think that I've definitely done everything that I needed to do to put myself in the best situation," he said. "But I do think a lot of people are calling for that fight — I think if O'Malley wins, a lot of [fans] are going to be asking for me and O'Malley. So that will be something that I'm certainly anticipating.
"I think when it comes down to it, probably after this one, logistically I'm the most deserving — but also, I think on-paper, what's going to do better for sales and who's going to get more viewership, me and O'Malley and me and Merab is going to do way better than the only other guy in the conversation, who is Yan. Yan already lost to O'Malley and he already lost to Merab. I'm coming off of a win a month before the title shot. I don't really see how you can't choose me."